‘Flash’ Bosses Promise No Speedster Villain in Season 4

The Flash has embraced a whole host of high-concept DC villains, but always seems to return to the speedster well for its main antagonists. No longer, as executive producers confirm Season 4’s main villain won’t be racing anyone.

The tidbit emerged in a collective CW-DC heroes PaleyFest panel (via The Hollywood Reporter), as executive producer Andrew Kreisberg explained “Next season we’re not going to have a speedster as the main bad guy.” The crowd reportedly cheered in response, after the first three years have given us speedster villains Reverse-Flash, Zoom and Savitar.

In particular, Kreisberg explained the decision for Season 3 to feature yet another demonic racer in “speed god” Savitar:

With Savitar, we know who he is and we’ve been planning this for a while. The first two seasons were about having fun with his powers, and this season for Barry [Gustin] is really about the pitfalls of having powers and that’s the story we wanted to tell. That’s why Savitar was the perfect villain for that story.

The Flash has plenty of non-speedster villains in comic lore, though a sizable chunk of his “Rogues” have already been utilized on the series in some fashion. The reliance on speedsters is somewhat understandable, given that big bads need to pose some physical threat to Barry Allen (and make sense with the frequent use of running effects), though fans will surely be intrigued with Season 4 breaking the pattern.

In the meantime, Flash will go musical next week, so stay tuned for more on Seasons 3 and 4.